Global Cement News

Guatemala: Mexico-based Cemex subsidiary Cemex Latam Holdings plans to install a new 1000t/day horizontal ball mill and support infrastructure including a dust collector and 3000t silo at its Puerto de San José grinding plant in Escuintia. Central America Data has reported the value of the work as US$16m.

Tajikistan: Tajik cement plants produced 4.2Mt of cement in 2020. Tajikistan Newsline has reported that cement exports for the year were 1.3Mt. Uzbekistan imported 764,000t, Afghanistan imported 505,000t and Kyrgyzstan imported 42,000t. The Tajikistan Ministry of Industry and New Technologies has predicted a 46% increase in cement exports to 1.9Mt/yr by 2023.

US: Coherent Market Insights (CMI) has forecast in a recent market report that the global cement grinding aids market will grow by 55% to US$5.02bn in 2027 from US$3.23bn in 2019. Factors driving market growth include increased cement industry concerns about energy consumption reduction and product fineness. A major driver is the Asia Pacific market, which accounted for 34% of value in 2019. In North America, US residential construction is forecast to continue its five-year increase. CMI predicted that projects in Saudi Arabia will also drive Middle Eastern market growth. It added that the Covid-19 outbreak has caused a drastic short-term decrease in demand.

UK: The Mineral Products Association (MPA) has announced the accession of a new affiliate member, the Cement Admixtures Association (CAA). The CAA represents admixture producers that supply construction and civil engineering in the UK. It was a founding signatory of Construction Industry Sustainable Construction Strategy in 2008.

MPA chief executive officer Nigel Jackson said, “We are delighted to have the CAA and its members as affiliates of the MPA. We look forward to increasingly close collaboration on our common objectives to improve the sustainability of key mineral products and promoting best practice in concrete and masonry construction.”

Two fairly serious investments in Peru made the industry headlines this week. The first was Yura’s plans to upgrade its Arequipa cement plant at a cost of US$200m. The project will involve increasing the plant’s clinker production capacity as well as installing a new mill and a 4.3km conveyor. The second was the latest instalment in Cementos Interoceanicos’ long held ambition to build a plant. It has struck a deal with France-based Satarem to build a 1Mt/yr plant near Puno. The deal also includes Satarem buying a 30% stake in Cementos Interoceanicos and plans to construct two lime units as well.

Graph 1: Local cement sales in Peru, January 2020 to February 2021 compared to January 2019 to February 2020. Source: ASOCEM.

These projects follow a squeeze for the local industry due to coronavirus-related containment measures. Data from the Association of Cement Producers (ASOCEM) shows that cement sales collapsed during the lockdown to just 11,000t in April 2020 before recovering in the autumn. Total annual local sales fell by 17% year-on-year to 9.7Mt from 11.6Mt. Sales have also remained high in January and February 2021.

The experience from the larger cement producers mirror the data from ASOCEM. Cementos Pacasmayo’s sales revenue fell by 7% year-on-year to US$354m in 2020 and its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 21% to US$86.3m. Unión Andina de Cementos’ (UNACEM) income fell by 14% year-on-year to US$467m in 2020. Despite this, UNACEM managed to sign a deal to buy Cementos La Unión Chile for US$23m in December 2020. The purchase consists of a 0.3Mt/yr cement grinding plant and a 0.34Mm³/yr ready-mix concrete business with multiple concrete plants and trucks. UNACEM described Chile as its main clinker export destination and it holds concrete and precast subsidiaries in the country.

Yura’s general manager Ramón Pizá reportedly called his company’s plans a “vote of faith in Peru.” This is not an understatement considering the market shocks caused by coronavirus in 2020. The country implemented public health measures relatively early during the pandemic but still ended up with one of the worst death rates per capita in Latin America so far. As the British Medical Journal (BMJ) pointed out earlier this month, the timing was right but tragically the application of public health measures has been found wanting. Yet, the fundamentals for the Peruvian cement market are strong. Annual sales mounted from 2017 to 2019, and were showing signs of continuing this in early 2020 before the lockdown shut the market down. This growth pattern has continued so far in 2021.